In the center of the now-silent banquet hall, I calmly raised my champagne glass and smiled softly.
“It is an honor to have been invited. What a beautiful night in Pellua.”
At my relaxed first greeting, the frozen air in the hall finally began to circulate again.
The orchestra hurriedly began playing their strings once more, and the great merchants of Pellua, gauging the mood, sidled toward me little by little.
It was a sight that would have been unimaginable back in my days as a wastrel.
Now, while they feared me, they were also desperately straining their ears to catch the scent of money that might fall from my lips.
“C-Chief Factor Carnoble. I heard the rumors. They say you broke through the windless seas of the East with that hideous… no, extraordinary ship?”
“You safely went to and returned from the heretic empire’s island of Cypro, cutting through seas swarming with pirates—is that truly so?”
Questions mixed with curiosity and greed poured in.
I took a sip of champagne and answered in a light, arrogant tone.
“It is true, of course. The eastern seas were calmer than I expected. After all, there wasn’t a pirate ship in existence that could keep up with our vessel’s speed.”
I deliberately raised my voice a little, letting my words ring throughout the entire hall.
“The governor of Cypro Island and Her Highness the Princess received me with such hospitality that I gathered mountains of cotton and specialty goods at prices one could never even dream of seeing in Pellua. There was no need to struggle within the Rom Peninsula. Beyond the sea lies a land of gold so vast that we could spend our entire lives scooping it up and still not exhaust it.”
At those words, the merchants’ pupils expanded with greed.
To those who had been trapped in the old trade routes controlled by chief factors like Valerius, the keywords “new sea route” and “the princess’s hospitality” were nothing short of a revolutionary shock.
Good. The bait is more than enough.
It was just as the merchants had surrounded me, desperate to pry information about eastern trade from me.
“Now then, everyone. May I have your attention?”
On the dais of the banquet hall, the elegant Lady Lucrezia lightly clapped her hands.
“Tonight’s gathering was arranged to celebrate Pellua’s prosperity, and at the same time to commemorate the eighteenth birthday of my beloved daughter, Reinas. I hope you will all enjoy this beautiful night to your hearts’ content.”
With her declaration, the banquet’s main event began.
It was the “gift presentation ceremony” offered by nobles and magnates to Reinas, the Doge’s only daughter.
“Lady Reinas! This is a black pearl necklace from the Southern Sea prepared by our merchant company!”
“Our family has prepared a silver fox fur shawl from the northern snowfields!”
Pellua’s most prominent families competed to pour dazzling jewels, gold ornaments, and silks onto the dais.
It was a blatant festival of flattery meant to curry favor with the Doge’s house.
Among them, the one that drew the most attention was the gift presented by the chief factor of the Obsidian Company, who had attended in Valerius’s place.
“Presented by the First Obsidian Company. A flawless fifty-carat blue sapphire, known as the ‘Heart of the Sea’!”
At the sight of the enormous blue gem glowing brilliantly inside the box, everyone burst into exclamations.
“Heavens, look at the size of it!”
“As expected of the Obsidian Company, which possesses the greatest capital in Pellua! That kind of gem is something you couldn’t obtain even with money!”
The Obsidian factor smugly lifted his chin and glanced at me.
It was as if he were sneering, “No matter how well you build ships, you cannot match the refined extravagance of Pellua’s merchant aristocracy.”
Lady Reinas also smiled happily as she looked at the sapphire, but her mother, Lady Lucrezia, remained merely composed.
To her, jewels were nothing more than predictable, commonplace luxuries.
“Now, partner. It’s our turn to step forward.”
I gave a look to Ayla, who was showing off her blood-red dress beside me.
When Ayla nodded and gave a signal to a servant, a luxurious cart covered with a silver lid approached my side.
I set down my glass and slowly walked to the front of the dais.
“The Carnoble Company offers its congratulations on Lady Reinas’s birthday.”
Every gaze in the banquet hall turned to me at once.
What kind of gift had this company head brought for the Doge’s daughter?
Had he perhaps brought a jewel that surpassed Obsidian’s blue sapphire?
I swept away the silver cover in one motion and spoke in a gentle, confident voice.
“Carnoble does not deal in commonplace lumps of stone or the fur of dead beasts. What we present is the true ‘luxury of the senses,’ enjoyed only by the imperial family of the Osean Empire in the eastern part of the continent.”
I lifted the first silver platter and held it out before Lady Reinas.
“First. The jewel confection of the East, ‘Lokum.’”
On the silver platter, cube-shaped, chewy-looking jellies were piled like a mountain.
Blended with rosewater and lemon juice, the confections shone with transparent hues like ruby and topaz, and their surfaces were thickly dusted with sweet powdered sugar like pure white snow.
“Jewels can only be enjoyed with the eyes, but this confection is a jewel that melts in the mouth.”
Unable to contain her curiosity, Reinas picked up a piece of lokum with a small silver fork and popped it into her mouth.
In that instant, her eyes grew round like a rabbit’s.
“Oh my…! The fragrance of roses fills my mouth, and it’s incredibly chewy and sweet! It’s on a completely different level from Pellua’s dry flour pastries!”
“It is Her Highness the Princess’s favorite refreshment. A garden of the East will unfold upon your tongue, my lady.”
As Reinas cupped her cheeks with an ecstatic expression, the noblewomen around her swallowed audibly.
Without delay, I took out the second gift.
It was a very small glass bottle, elaborately crafted.
“Second. The red blood of a thousand blossoms, ‘Damask Rose Essence.’”
I opened the stopper slightly and dropped a single drop of oil onto the back of Lady Lucrezia’s hand.
Then the fierce, fatal scent of fresh roses that burst forth from that single drop of oil instantly swallowed the vast banquet hall whole.
“Heavens… what in the world is this rich fragrance…!”
It was enough to make Lady Lucrezia spring up from her seat.
It was on an entirely different level from the murky perfumes the nobles had used until now.
“This is the absolute essence, distilled and extracted from thousands of the finest Damask roses, a specialty of the East. A single drop of this is worth more than ten of Obsidian’s sapphires. It will elevate your dignity even further, my lady.”
Lady Lucrezia smelled the fragrance on the back of her hand and stared at me as if enchanted.
A clear desire to possess it burned in her eyes.
I did not stop. This time, it was the noblemen’s turn.
From beneath the cart, I took out a large glass instrument engraved with ornate geometric patterns.
“Third. The fantastical mist, the ‘Glass Water Pipe.’”
It was an instrument with clear water held inside a glass vessel, connected to a long, supple silk hose.
I lit the charcoal at the top and burned a special eastern tobacco scented with fruit.
Bubble, bubble, bubble.
The water inside the glass vessel boiled up, and the smoke that came through the hose was not acrid, but carried the rich, sweet scent of apple and mint.
“There is no need to ruin your throat with harsh pipe tobacco. This is the pastime of eastern emperors, filtering the smoke through water so that only a soft, sweet, fantastical mist is drawn into the lungs. When conversing at social gatherings, there is no finer luxury.”
The eyes of the noblemen and merchants were completely nailed to that geometric glass instrument.
In their minds, the image of themselves lounging grandly in their mansions with that splendid device in hand had been perfectly imprinted.
And then, the final gift to adorn the climax.
I flung open a heavy wooden box.
Inside, soaps cut neatly into squares were stacked in layers, like green gold ingots.
“Lastly. The ‘Laurel Olive Soap,’ known as green gold.”
People began to murmur.
He was offering mere soap as a gift to the Doge’s house?
I snorted and explained.
“The soaps you all use in your mansions now are made by roughly hardening animal fat and grease, so after washing, does not a foul, gamey stench linger?”
The noblewomen’s faces reddened, having been struck where it hurt.
“But this soap is a handmade work of art, blended only from the finest olive oil and laurel oil of the East, then aged for more than half a year. If you wash your face with this soap, the animal stench embedded in your body will be washed away, leaving only moisture and the fresh scent of laurel.”
Fragrance, taste, sight, and hygiene.
It was a carpet bombing of a high-end luxury lifestyle that went beyond one-dimensional displays like jewels or silk, transforming the very quality of life itself.
“……”
The banquet hall fell into perfect silence.
The fifty-carat blue sapphire presented by the Obsidian Company had long since vanished from people’s minds without a trace.
The noblewomen could not take their eyes off the rose oil and lokum, while the noblemen were captivated by the bubbling sound of the water pipe.
Lady Reinas had gone so far as to hug the entire box of lokum to herself, and an irrepressible smile of delight spread across Lady Lucrezia’s lips.
“Chief Factor of Carnoble.”
Lady Lucrezia descended from the dais and extended her hand to me.
“Your gifts… have stolen every light in this banquet hall tonight. I never imagined that the luxuries of the East could be so elegant and wondrous.”
Pretending to lightly kiss the back of my hand, she expressed the perfect support and favor of Pellua’s highest authority.
I bowed courteously, then cast a cruel smile toward the Obsidian factor trembling behind me.
“We ought to allow the nobles of Pellua to enjoy at least this much luxury. I promise that, from now on, my factories and merchant ships will fill your mansions with these enchanting luxuries of the East.”
It was the moment the balance of high society was completely overturned.
Elfonso Carnoble.
He was now making his dazzling debut as the absolute trendsetter who would dominate the culture of Pellua’s aristocratic society.